Haunted by a Shadow
by MoonChild2308
Summary: When Echo shows up at school one day, Kurama doesn't know what to think about her. But when she starts showing signs of knowledge about demons, he has no choice but to take an interest in her. Is there more to this withdrawn, isolated girl than anyone thinks? Can he help her escape the nightmare she's forced to live in? Kurama/OC
1. Chapter 1

So here I am with another Yu Yu Haksuho story :] I don't have too much to talk about before I get into the story. I don't do much during the Summer except for work on the weekends, which I don't do much at work either. I'm in the process of training my puppy so most of my writing does get done at work because my Shepherd/Lab mix puppy takes a lot of work to make sure she doesn't destroy our house. But I'll try to update this often! Thanks a tons to the most amazing girl in the world, Firestorm1991for all her help with this and she writes amazing YYH stories too so you should check her out when you're done here! Anyway, review please and let me know what you think!

Chapter 1

"_Idiot."_

Lightning crackled across the dark afternoon sky outside the girl's bedroom window. She felt familiar goose bumps rise across her skin as she looked out, watching a wave of rain beginning to cover the town. "Shut up."

"_Moron."_

Knowing now she would get soaked by the rain, she began searching through one of the many boxes she had yet to unpack. "I don't know what you think you're going to accomplish by insulting me. For an 8,000 year old demon, you're so childish. Found it! First box, too." Grinning triumphantly, she pulled an old black sweat jacket from the box and slid her arms into it, embracing its comfortable warmth.

"_I am not 8,000 years old! And for the love of… If you don't want to get wet, carry a damn umbrella!"_ There was a brief respite of silence. _"Why the hell did I ever have to get stuck with you?"_

"You ask me that almost every day. You're the one who picked me, remember? And, besides, who uses an umbrella in a thunder storm? It's a pointy metal death trap." She turned around, her eyes landing on her new walk-in closet across the room. It was empty except for a few sets of the purple uniform she had begun to dread wearing the moment she set eyes on it. "It's already the middle of the afternoon. I've got sixteen hours until I have to put that stupid uniform on and go to a crappy new school and deal with crappy new people that I already don't like. And now I have to spend my last afternoon of freedom going to get groceries."

"_Stop griping, Echo. No one wants to hear it. You think your life sucks? I'm the one who's stuck in your damn head! It ain't a bucket of rainbows, kid. Can we just go already?"_

Rolling her eyes, Echo left her room and walked downstairs to the kitchen. She took a seat at the island counter in the middle of the room and read over the note left by her mother as she started lacing up her boots.

_Echo,_

_I hate to leave so soon after moving but they needed me to head out to set up more software right away. I wanted to be there for your first day at your new school so I'm sorry. I hope you aren't too mad at me. I put some more money in your account. It should be more than enough to get you through until I get back. Don't spend it all in one place! I'll check in to see how your doing so do answer the phone every now and then. Have fun in school and please at least make an attempt to make some friends this time. I hate to see you by yourself so much, even though you say that's the way you prefer it. I just want to see you happy. Anyway, honey, I've left the number for my hotel on the fridge as usual but you can always reach me on my cell phone if you need me. Don't forget to buy some groceries. Just get the things you know you'll need and we'll go get everything else when I come home. See you soon._

_Mom_

"We've only been here for two days and already she's gone on another business trip," Echo sighed as she stood up, getting ready to leave. She checked her pockets for her phone and wallet and, satisfied they were there, walked to the front door. "I suppose it's better this way, though. At least if she's not here, she's not in danger." Thunder boomed above the house, sending a shiver down her spine.

"_Weakling. Stop being such a baby."_

Deciding to ignore her lesser half this time, Echo stepped out from her warm, dry house and into the pouring rain. Flipping her hood up over her head and stuffing her hands into her pockets, she began the trek to the grocery store, only pausing to cast a brief glance upwards. "I wonder if the rain is my fault, too."

"_Probably."_

~X~

"See you later, Kurama. Try not to drown yourself with your tears, Kuwabara."

"Shut up, Yusuke. You don't understand my pain! She was my soul mate!"

Trying to smother a laugh, Kurama decided it was better to head home than interrupt this argument again. "Goodbye, Yusuke, Kuwabara." Even as he walked away from the two bickering boys, he could still hear them. It wasn't until he was more than halfway down the block that their voices no longer reached his ears. "Those two will never grow up."

Yusuke and Kuwabara had just returned from a mission rescuing Hiei's younger sister and had asked Kurama if he wanted to spend the day at Kuwabara's house. Not having much else to do, Kurama had agreed. He had spent most of the day conversing with Kuwabara's older sister, Shizuru, while the other two played video games and Kuwabara sobbed a number of times at having been separated from Yukina. As childish as the two could be sometimes, Kurama was just happy that they had all returned in one piece and that he was saved from a boring Sunday while his mother had been called in to work.

_As boring as a Sunday as it would have been if not for those two,_ he thought to himself as he walked down the sidewalk, _it's nice not to have to worry about demons or fighting for at least a little bit. I prefer a boring life with my mother over all that._

~X~

"I definitely need milk and eggs."

"_Boring."_

"Beef, chicken, frozen pizza… Oh, and poptarts!"

"_Holy crap, your grocery list is so boring it's putting me to sleep. Your mother gave you a bunch of money to take care of yourself with so feed yourself something better than poptarts!"_

"Stop yelling at me! I'll buy and eat whatever I want to buy and eat. You don't get a say, Kilabas! Just because you possessed me and now you're stuck in me doesn't mean you can dictate what I eat!"

"_I taste what you taste too, Echo. I may not be corporeal but I still exist inside of you, which means I feel what you feel and taste what you taste. Buy some decent food, damn it! I want cookies!"_

"Fine! But don't come crying to me when we get fat and I can't do anything because you stuffed cookies down my throat!"

"_Then I'll just complain that you're blaming me when, as a voice in your pathetic head, I can't make you do anything."_

"You're impossible," Echo groaned as she walked down the sidewalk. The demon who had inhabited her body years ago, Kilabas, often had ways of winning their arguments. Echo was halfway to the grocery store and had succeeded in getting drenched by the rain before it had stopped ten minutes after she left her house. "Any preferences on what I get to drink?"

She was waiting for a snide remark when the squeal of tires on the wet street distracted her. She took her eyes off the sidewalk in front of her, looking for the culprit.

At the intersection ahead of her, a little girl was crossing the street by herself. "A girl that young shouldn't be crossing the street by herself. I wonder where her mom is?"

"_Forget about it. Her parents obviously don't care if she becomes road kill. It's not your problem. Hurry up and get to the store already. I'm hungry."_

Echo took a few more steps and stopped, hearing the same squealing sound again. This time she found the tires the sound belonged to. Up the street, a car had just turned the corner. She noticed as soon as the man driving the car had made the turn, his eyes darted down to his radio. The little girl had just reached the middle of the street and Echo waited for the driver's eyes to come back up, to see the little girl and stop or slow down. "He's not looking…"

"_Echo, stop it._"

"He's going to hit her. He doesn't even see her, Kilabas. He's going to hit her and he'll never have even known she was there. I can't let that happen!"

"_Damn it, Echo, be sensible! You're just going to get yourself injured when he hits you instead! I'm not lucky enough for you to get yourself killed so save yourself the pain and let her take the hit!"_

"I can't do that!" Ignoring Kilabas's continuing protests, Echo took off running.

~X~

On the other side of the street, Kurama was still walking home. "What should I make mother for dinner tonight?" he pondered out loud to himself, since there weren't many people around. His mother was working late that night and he had offered to cook dinner so she wouldn't have to worry about it when she got home. "Pasta or chicken…"

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone yelling. "Get out of the road, kid!"

He looked over to see a little girl standing in the middle of a crosswalk, startled and looking around. A little farther up the street a car was speeding down the road towards her. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that the little girl was going to get hit.

Kurama wasn't too far away from her. _I can make it. I can grab her and save us both._ He started forward, but stopped when he noticed something on the other side of the street.

A girl, looking to be about his age, was already running out into the street. He felt a strong gust of wind, enough that his hair and clothes were blown sideways, as he watched the heroine dive at and grab the little girl, putting herself between the girl and the car.

The strong gust of wind caused the car to lose traction, gaining the driver's attention at last as the car began to swerve back and forth down the road. For a moment, Kurama feared both girls would get hit but, a mere few feet away from them, the driver was able to regain control and stopped the car.

Pulling her head up from the little girl, Echo looked around, noticing the lack of impact. Seeing that the car had stopped just in time and that they were both fine, she unwrapped her arms from around the girl's body. Tears were pouring down her face and she was rightfully shaken. Echo smiled gently at the girl, patting the top of her head. "You're fine, sweetie. You're okay."

The little girl nodded and tried to thank Echo, but her gratitude came out in sobs and gulps. "Just be more careful, okay? And always look both ways before crossing the street."

Helping the little girl across the street the rest of the way, she said goodbye. _"You're such an idiot!_"

"For the last time, shut up!" She turned around, ready to head home, and found herself face to face with a boy she didn't recognize.

"Were you talking to me?" Kurama had approached the girl, curious about what kind of girl risks her life like that, when she had made her way to the sidewalk he was on. She seemed shocked by his sneaking up on her like that. Using her stunned silence as an opportunity, he took a good look at her.

She was a bit shorter than him and she was thin, but appeared to be muscular. Her skin was the color of porcelain and was covered in freckles. Her wide eyes were a bright grey, nearly silver, and he found her hair quite interesting. Her hair was dyed bright purple, with her natural black roots coming in, as well as bits and pieces of what appeared to be teal colored hair added in coming out of her roots. Her hair was slightly longer than her shoulders and was braided in two pigtails over her shoulders, with squared off bangs covering her forehead. She was wearing a black t-shirt with what looked like some sort of blue police box on it and a large black sweat jacket over a pair of faded denim shorts, with black laced-up combat boots and white leggings that covered up to the middle of her thighs. She was drenched to the bone from the rain before, he assumed.

Echo had only been looking at him for a moment, but she already didn't like him. His red hair, green eyes and the innocent look on his face annoyed her. And now he was talking to her, which annoyed her even more. "Why the hell would I be talking to you, asshole?"

He was slightly taken back by her rough attitude, after seeing how nice she had been to the little girl. "I only wanted to see if you were alright. What you did to save that young girl was amazing. Not many people would have done the same."

"Yeah, well, I'm not many people."

"_Echo, I'm not getting a good feeling. I don't know where it's coming from but I can sense a powerful spirit energy. It feels… familiar… But I can't place it. Leave now."_

_Sounds like a plan to me, Kilabas_. "Go away now." She shoved past him and started back on her path.

Kurama was left, watching her walk away and wondering who she was. After a moment of curiosity, however, he shrugged it off and continued heading home. He had dinner to plan.

Echo didn't bother looking back as she trudged through puddles on the sidewalk. _"You see, this is why you should always listen to me! I told you not to go saving that stupid girl. Yet you did it anyway because 'look at me! I'm Echo! My life sucks and I have to save everyone else from having a sucky life so let's just jump out in front of speeding cars to save stupid children!' There will be other children so let a couple die! Who gives a fuck? Not me! And then there was that strange spirit energy… It felt so familiar but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. What if someone saw you use your powers? They're gonna hunt you down and then I'll suffer for it!"_

"You need to relax, okay? My blood pressure is going to spike because you won't stop freaking out and that is just the last thing I need," Echo argued with herself. There wasn't anyone on the street around them so she felt okay talking in a low voice like this. She wasn't fond of talking telepathically with Kilabas and preferred voicing her words instead of thinking them. "No one knows that it was my powers, or yours more like it, that caused the wind that made the car swerve. In a storm, wind is normal! Everyone probably just thought it was leftover wind from the storm so we're fine. Stop freaking out already."

"_Fine, but you should head home just in case."_

"You're probably right." She took another step and stopped, letting out a groan. "I still have to go to the grocery store! We have no food!"

"…_Grocery store, then home. I'm too hungry to care about safe right now. Besides, if you die, then I win."_

"I hate you."


	2. Apology

Dear readers,

I don't know how many of you still keep up with this story. I lost track of it a long time ago, a little less than a year ago, though it seems like so much longer than that. I had ideas of getting back to it recently but that isn't going to happen now.

I'm leaving Fanfiction, for good pretty much. I'm posting letters like this on all of my stories. I love Fanfiction dearly and all of my amazing readers but my life has become too complicated and too busy for this right now. My mom has come down with cancer and I'm not sure how much longer she's going to be around. Fanfiction requires too much of my time and right now that time is better spent with my mom.

I never wanted to leave Fanfiction and I've always had so much fun writing them. I had so many ideas for all my stories and it was never my intention to leave any of them behind. I was even in the process of creating a new one when the decision hit me. But for all the time I spend writing my fics, it's time that I could be spending with my mom, and time that I won't have in the case something happens to her. So I have to leave, even though I have mixed feelings about it. I might be back someday; I might not. There's a good chance I'll use my absence from Fanfiction to start back up on some of my original fiction that I let go of because Fanfiction consumed my life.

However, Haunted by a Shadow is being adopted by FireStorm1991, a very good friend of mine. She's helped me out a lot with many of my Yu Yu Hakusho stories and I have faith she will make this story something phenomenal. She says it might be a little while before she can get the story up and running but keep an eye out for when she does put it up. I know she'll make it great, a lot better than I would have been able to make it.

Again, I'm so sorry everyone. But my life and my mother come first, before my love of Fanfiction.

Farewell,

Moonchild2308


End file.
